Chapter Five: The Buddhas of Dunhuang Have No Backs

He did not remember this grotto, or her hand in his. “The vision is bait,” Isabel warned. “Mo knows you'll chase that memory.” “It can't invent a lie.” “It can choose which truth to show.” A scream echoed deeper inside. A painted apsara pulled a Brazilian candidate's invisible shadow into the wall with colored cords. His body followed, leaving a new mural whose eyes still blinked. Every Buddha opened its eyes. Lu studied the murals through his drone's thermal camera. The paint cast no darkness, but cold human outlines crouched inside the stone. “The shadows aren't gone. They're painted on the inside.” He pressed a palm to the wall and used Shadowstep.